If the accused is a Democrat politician should we really “believe all women”?
That depends. Why? Because reasons.
Enter one Tara Reade, a former aide of then-Senator Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr (D-Delaware). Miss Reade was an aide to Biden back in 1992, when (according to her) he pushed her up against the wall and sexually assaulted her. (I’ll spare you the details, which you can read here: https://reason.com/2020/03/26/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-me-too-believe-women/)
Oops. I guess she didn’t get the memo.
Now, we all know that the paladins in the mainstream press are nothing more than the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party. They have been ever since FDR, probably even earlier. If they can’t hide a deleterious story, they’ll run interference for Democrat politicians in ways that would make a Heisman Trophy winner proud.
But, perhaps not this time. Maybe, juuuuusssst maybe, the Big Boys in the smoke-filled rooms over at the Democrat Party HQ are having second thoughts.
You see, Uncle Joe is (how shall we say this?) is clearly not playing with a full deck. Gone are the days in which FDR’s paralysis could be hidden or JFK’s philandering, overlooked. Thanks to the Internet, we can’t put that genie back in the bottle. And anyway, senility can’t be hidden. No matter how hard they try, they can’t edit Biden’s word-salad speeches into anything even moderately coherent. Even the syllables that emit from his mouth don’t make sense. As for his videotaped meanderings offstage, those can’t be hidden as well. Not possible.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Biden was the necessary avatar around which the Democrat establishment had to rally to take out Sen Bernie Sanders. Why? Because they were scared of Bernie. Folks, they were really scared of Bernie. And they should have been. Bernie pulled off the trifecta of primary politics in that he won Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, rather convincingly I should add. That has never been done before, not by a Democrat nor a Republican. Or a Whig, Federalist, Know-Nothing or Bull Moose. By nobody else. That was huge. Worse, Biden came in fourth or fifth in those states. He was written off as a political corpse and as a result, the money was drying up.
Then the Grand Poobahs sprang Rep James Clyburn of South Carolina into action. And through several well-placed phone calls, they got several other candidates to drop out and endorse Biden in very short order; basically a political miracle. They got Sen Pocahontas to remain in the race just long enough to prevent him from winning any more primaries. A perfect storm, politically speaking. In any event, Clyburn became kingmaker and his touch was magic enough to resurrect Biden’s political corpse. How quickly the tables turned –now Bernie is history.
Well played, very well played, if I may say so myself.
Now don’t get me wrong: Biden’s defects are manifest. It would take an old-growth forest to make the paper necessary for the books that would be needed to catalog his faults. Why use his candidacy to take out Sanders? Because they were that desperate. This is what happens when you have a political party where the bench is neither wide nor deep. There literally was nobody else. Biden’s faults could be dealt with later. And anyway, the Democrats would rather lose in November if that’s what it takes to destroy the socialist wing of the Party. (The Republicans did that to the Tea Party wing of the GOP.) In the off-chance that he wins, he’ll be the first president taken out by the 25th Amendment. Count on it.
Well, now is “later”.
Personally, I have a sneaking suspicion that Mdme Cyberhack is behind this hatchet-job. The last three years have been a torment for her; her election was in the bag but somehow Tsar Vladimir rejiggered the voting machines in the Rust Belt and installed Orange Hitler as his puppet. Something about a woman scorned and all that. It’s her turn; the third time will be the charm. Anyway, this makes sense in some bizarre fashion.
Or it could be some other plan is being hatched. There’s an incipient “Draft Cuomo” movement effervescing beneath the surface. And as much as I don’t like him personally, I must say that (broadly speaking) he’s doing an admirable job trying to get a grip on the coronavirus as it’s playing out in New York. I don’t agree with his politics –at all–but he’s got what’s called “command presence”. I don’t think he’d defeat President Trump but it wouldn’t be a Dukakis-magnitude rout such as 1988. With Biden, Trump would probably carry New Mexico, New Hampshire and Maine (at least).
Make no mistake, there isn’t a day that goes by in which Democrat operatives aren’t worried witless that Biden will show up in a Speedo and talk about how little black kids liked to jump up and down on his lap. If during the debates Biden starts talking about the squirrel that ate his slippers, then Illinois and Oregon would flip as well. If he loses control of his bladder, then it’s a 50-state sweep, a pickup of four GOP seats in the Senate and lights out for Pelosi.
Sure, it’s possible that Biden will be asked to step aside, but is it probable? Well, look at it this way: Biden needs 1900 delegates to officially win the nomination in Milwaukee. He’s got nowhere near that, presently. That’s one factor which should be considered. Then there’s this consideration: thanks to the current pandemic, several of the next primaries are being put on hold. If this thing lasts until the Democrat convention, then nobody gets to Milwaukee with the necessary majority. Hence, the long-dreaded brokered convention, where anything’s possible. (As of this writing, the Democrat convention is going to be postponed until August.)
Then, there’s the virus itself. Larry Rasky, a former advisor to Joe Biden, passed away a few weeks ago at 69 years of age. According to the autopsy report, he tested positive for the coronavirus.
Kinda makes you go “Hmmmmm……”
Now, this isn’t going to make Bernie’s loss any more palatable to his partisans. Hillary and her minions in the DNC screwed him over big-time in 2016. This go-around, Bernie made some own-goals which made his candidacy untenable. Praising Fidel Castro is a sure-fire way to lose Florida in a general election and Bernie did just that. Still, for all the idiocy of socialism, it is an actual political ideology. And Bernie actually believed in it. Worse (as far as Biden is concerned), he could actually articulate his beliefs in coherent sentences.
And then there’s this: according to the Pew Research poll, 15 percent of Bernie Bros either voted for Trump in 2016 or went for Jill Stein. I imagine that number is going to be somewhat larger this November. I saw this on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fettyschwapp/status/1247912732051099648
I suspect she speaks for a whole lot of Bernie’s disgruntled voters. Not that Bernie wasn’t a grifter, most socialists are. I mean seriously, the guy has got three houses. (That’s the dirty little secret of socialism isn’t it? We’re all “equal”, it’s just that some of us are more equal than others.) That being said, his Bros are true believers, even if he isn’t. And like I said, the Democrat Establishment did whatever they could to take him out.
So now, the presumptive nominee of the Democrat Party is Joe Biden. For now. All depends how much traction Tara Reade’s story gets. If the legacy media continues to bury it, then Joe’s in the clear. If, however, this whole China thing gets bigger, then given Biden’s past slavishness to Beijing (in word, thought and videotape), then we’ll be hearing more about Reade. And then I’d say all bets are off.
And there I was, looking forward to feeling the Bern of full red-blooded communism. Now all I’m going to get for Christmas is another liberal oligarchy – unless Trump wins.
“Let not your heart be troubled” -—
Trump will win! ??
p.s. it’s surprisingly comforting to hear daily the President’s address to the nation, along with VP Pence – ⭐️ so glad they’re at the helm!
My guess is that Biden will continue as the official candidate with Cuomo as his vice-presidential candidate and then he will drop out , leaving the field to Cuomo.
Cuomo has nipple rings. I don’t know what that’s all about but when he says he doesn’t want to be president, I believe him.
I was left feeling very disturbed by that discovery. It was definitely the worst thing to come out of this coronacrisis.
Sigh, I really thought I would not have to endure reading another hypocritical conservative opinion.
Trump advocated for assaulting women by “grabbing them by the pussy.” Can’t deny the tape. As much as the conservative media is biased and overlooks this fact, they continue to downplay it. But when a liberal is accused of doing the same thing as a conservative, then the conservative pundits begin saying this is something that can’t be overlooked. If you want the media to go after Joe Biden for an alleged sexual assault, then you can’t get mad when you hear the media also playing the tape from Trump’s own words about sexual assault.
Highly disappointed in George!
Hey James,
Did a woman come forward with proof that Trump molested her private parts? I must have missed this. I thought it was more like Trump engaging in locker room talk. Can you please point me to the details that I have overlooked? Thank you.
James, you are right. The tape of Trump claiming he grabs women’s pudenda exists. He is guilty as charged. He’s braggadocious and has committed adultery in his heart.
If however Miss Reade is correct (and according to the new Kavanaugh rules we must Believe All WomenTM), then the presumptive nominee of the Democrat Party is not only deluded but an actual criminal. After all, Trump only spoke about grabbing women while Biden is accused of actually penetrating a woman without her consent.
Even in our debased justice system, no one would bring a braggart to court for his words regarding his sexual prowess. Actual rapists however are still brought to justice.
James L: aka Mr. Snowflake ❄️ –
the salient point here, is endless double standard of the rabid Left DOWNPLAYING any sexual assault for Democrats – & blasting it big time if it’s a Republican…
at least Trump’s antics were long before becoming President – unlike your boy Bill Clinton disgraced office of the White House. President Trump is a ‘new man’ in God now, whether you believe it or not.
Example: What Democrats did to Brett Kavanaugh is beyond disgraceful, it’s Demonic – a total LIE + again, evil Left got away with it!
?Here’s latest spin by Biden campaign denies allegation of sexual assault:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-campaign-denies-false-allegations-of-sexual-assault
Explore the Fox News apps that are right for you at http://www.foxnews.com/apps-products/index.html.
I’m no admirer of Trump — and I am under no delusions that he is a paragon of purity — but he has owned up to what he’s said about women in the past. Essentially, he’s adopted the Bill Clinton approach of the 1990s — “I’m a cad, but you all know that. You did not elect me to be the national example of sexual purity.”
The difference is that the mainstream media and the modern Democrats have said repeatedly for a few years now that any allegation of sexual abuse is disqualifying — the “guilty until proven innocent” approach. This is an impossible rule to by which to decide who gets to run things, but this approach what the MSM and Democrats currently want.
And the MSM and Democrats would most certainly get rid of Trump if they only could! The only thing left in their armamentarium, once their crash-the-economy-using-coronavirus-as-an-excuse approach fails, is to finally just dispense with democracy altogether.
The conservatives as a rule do not believe in the “guilty until proven innocent” approach, which is why what George writes is NOT a double standard.
If George were defending Trump’s sexual purity while denouncing Biden’s sexual assault history, then you have a point. But George has never done that.
What many of us have known for decades — that Biden is a narcissistic, womanizing, gangster of a politician (who’s is clearly now suffering from advanced clinical dementia) — the media and Democrats are now trying to hide because they’ve hitched their wagon to his train as their “only hope” of beating Trump in November. And the big-money globalists who fund the modern Democrat party don’t trust the “newer Democrats” (the Sanders/AOC crowd) at all — they know that Sanders/AOC would send them to the gulags in a heartbeat, along with all of the conservatives.
As a Pennsylvanian, we’ve unfortunately been acquainted with Biden and his antics for decades. He’s fooled enough people in our neighboring Delaware for too long — I love Delawarians, but no idea why they kept reelecting him to the Senate. He paints himself as a folksy small town guy from Scranton when it suits his purposes. He’s a blatant narcissist, opportunist, and plagiarist. And talk about someone who has used his electoral office to enrich himself — Biden is second only to the Clintonistas.
To point out the MSM/Democrats’ blatant hypocrisy in ignoring Biden’s womanizing and sexual abuse does NOT imply a defense of Trump. Many of us Americans are disgusted with both sides of the political aisle and are fed up with the circus side show which is now American politics.
It will be interesting to see how the media tries to keep this Tara Reade story suppressed. Apparently some women’s complaints of sexual assault are more worth listening to than others.
There is a reason that Pa like Arizona are purplish states and not red states. In fact, its because in Pa the labor unions have more pull and in Arizona folks from California are coming in.
Carnac*
Indeed!
Mr. Liodakis, there is a very important distinction between talking about doing something wrong(Trump), and actually doing something wrong (Biden).
Just a reminder it’s been six weeks since our Bishops closed our Churches. New habits are being formed.
Also anybody who blames the Government has not read the first amendment.
New, and regrettable habits, are indeed being formed.
Indeed. I was thinking about this today.
All 3 of my local Walmart’s are packed. The liquor store has a line out the door. Traffic has by-and-large returned to normal.
Yet we still cannot go to Church and not a peep from our hierarchs. It’s getting harder and harder not to be scandalized. But, Fr. Peter Heers has a good video on this he just put out
Yes, Jacob Lee:
The people continue to be locked out of their Churches. I can’t help but wonder how many will return. As the Hierarchs attempt to protect the flesh…they neglect the soul. I am also wondering if the Churches will be locked down again in October when flu season begins…which should take them right through the Nativity of Christ and the Great Fast again. Perhaps the doors will be open for three or four months per year?
We must remove the bad bishops and elect holy bishops to replace them. That’s what it means to be Orthodox ! I know I won’t be returning if this continues past the month of May. Why would I give my family into the hands of men who will betray them? I will not, that is my duty before God to not do that.
Chris, the problem with that is that as laymen, most of us here in America are no great shakes either. Myself included. We basically got the bishops we deserve.
Proof of that was back in Ligonier when Bartholomew pulled the rug out from under the GOA bishops –all of whom were enthusiastically on board with the formalization of an American Orthodox Church. We laymen should have risen up then and stormed the barricades.
It could be done. About 10 years ago, the EP got a sinecured “metropolitan” of an extinct throne to write a scathing letter to Arb Demetrios, basically calling him everything but a wild man. Michael Jaharis wrote an equally pointed letter back to the EP telling him to call the dogs off or he wouldn’t receive his stipend for the year from NY. Bart backed down.
Archbishop Elpidophoros recently wished the Muslims a happy Ramadan in the most face-palmy way…But, he was reamed up and down on his twitter account which was good to see
The sad thing is they are patting themselves on the back for doing a “good job”. I don’t know what we are going to do. We are moving to Houston in a week so we will evaluate. Some of my closest friends at Church are planning on switching jurisdictions at a minimum. I fear some will never go back. I currently live in California the Churches there if they don’t stand up for themselves will never re-open. The governor has no plans to re-open it might be Christmas.
Jacob,
Was this a planned move, or are you moving because you are not happy with your current jurisdiction?
Thank you
Moving from California to Houston was planned or forced upon us. ( California AB5 ) Do to Corona we are leaving earlier than planned. We plan on visiting Churches with our kids once we are moved. Hopefully some will be open…
I am very familiar with Houston. I’m more than happy to recommend parishes if you would like? Depending on what area you’ll be in
Petros we will be in Sugarland. We have visited St. Basil, St. Joseph and St. Paul on past trips. We figured we will visit them all and then decide. Unfortunately non of them are open so that may take a while…
Good for you. A nice place but more humid.
Mikhail: “The people continue to be locked out of their Churches. … As the Hierarchs attempt to protect the flesh…they neglect the soul.”
Well, in the monasteries like Kiev-Perchersk and Diveyevo , where they had open services, the epidemic broke out recently. We will see how they will manage and draw practical conclusions. After few weeks they will have collective immunity.
See the other thread and the info posted by Ioannes – the countries where the churches remained open have the lowest infection rates.
I think it was showing that the countries who had the lowest number of COVID cases were Orthodox.
But what was REALLY interesting is the only jurisdiction that remained open here (to my knowledge, aside from the Ephraim monasteries which, I assume, were all open like St. Anthony’s) had the least number of COVID cases in the country where their patriarchate resides. The Georgian Church wasn’t stupid about it. They took reasonable precautions, of course, but they allowed the Body of Christ to attend Church and take the Eucharist.
True, but the lowest of the low (in a good sense) all kept their churches open – Georgia, Bulgaria, etc.
Exactly what I said.
“If the accused is a Democrat politician should we really “believe all women”?
That depends. Why? Because reasons.”
I think the reason is simple: “Flores, who faulted the former vice president for not offering up a clear apology last year when he addressed her complaint, said she will nevertheless vote for him because Trump is orders of magnitude worse for women.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/23/tara-reade-biden-202785”
Don’t Christians support Trump for basically the same reason, ie – that supporting whoever his opponent is would be “orders of magnitude worse?”
Which is to say, I don’t think it’s necessarily being hypocritical (which I assume was the meaning of your comment; please correct me if I’m wrong) for someone who either says “believe all women” on the one hand, or a Christian who is aware of Trump’s own disgusting behavior on the other, to struggle with it in the context of a presidential campaign.
But to your general point about Biden, given the unique circumstances we find ourselves in, I think there is an at least larger than slim chance that someone other than Biden comes out of the convention as the nominee. Even though he’s next in line (as was Hillary in 2016, having been unusually usurped by Obama in 2008), he’s clearly showing signs of age (I recall Dennis Miller’s joke on Reagan’s second term: he’s got the nuclear codes? My grandfather is that age and we don’t even let him touch the remote control…) and none of the other 14,623 candidates were good enough politicians to unseat him (unlike Obama in 2008). So the Believe All Women faction of the party, which I do not think is small, could very well be the deciding factor in Biden not being nominated because, according to the old maxim, while Republicans fall in line, Democrats generally…don’t.
And since I don’t believe any individual Democrat who isn’t a power broker with something to gain actually *wants* to vote for anyone they reasonably suspect to be a sexual predator, that could definitely be the path forward for a Cuomo.
If nothing else, and mostly due to to the pandemic, the convention should at least be interesting for the first time in a long time and not just a kickoff for the presumptive nominee’s general campaign.
RIP, thank you for your thoughtful response. I sense a little illogic in your second paragraph however.
Miss Flores is entitled to her opinion but how exactly do you agree with her assertion that Trump is “orders of magnitude worse” for women? Specifics please.
Personally, I am a nostalgic along the lines of W H Auden who regretted voting Conservative because they had been in power and “hadn’t turned the clock back one minute”.
Seriously, it’s hard to be enthusiastic about any political party which hasn’t found a way to reconstitute the nuclear family by bringing back the living wage and subsidizing women’s domestic roles so they don’t have to compete with men in the work force (and thus depress men’s wages). Both Dems and Reps are guilty in this regard.
To clarify, I was neither agreeing nor disagreeing with her, just pointing out that people who “believe all women” and still support Biden have a rationale to it that isn’t necessarily hypocritical, which is what your initial statement seemed to imply (again, please correct me if I read you wrong).
I happened on a full article on the topic later in the morning (which may shoot down the theory I just put forth. Possibly everyone will, in the end, rally around Biden): https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/04/joe-biden-progessives-2020.html
My sole point was simply that I don’t think anyone’s blind to the inherent difficulty with Biden now that these accusations have not only surfaced, but are becoming more credible all the time. This just came out on Friday, for example: https://theintercept.com/2020/04/24/new-evidence-tara-reade-joe-biden/
Also, since I think this is the first we’re interacting, let me say…nice blog! Thanks for having me.
RIP,
I agree with most everything you have written here. Politicians do what politicians do. I cannot say that I ‘trust’ any of them or agree with any of them on everything they do – particularly in their personal lives.
But I will say this without any hesitation whatsoever: The Left are masters of manipulating the moral sensibilities of the Christian populace. “How,” they are fond of asking in so many words, “can you possibly vote for him/her given his/her personal moral failure? Never mind that the policies of the Left (and not merely the myriad personal moral failures of individuals on the Left) are almost completely antithetical to anything that could even remotely be called Christian.
It is a constant – and quite successful -tactic they employ to lure those with Christian sensibilities into straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.
Brian, Protestants have been perfecting this tactic for almost half a millennium now. “How can you believe a bad man like Constantine can be a saint”?
To which one should answer: “have you ever read the Book of Joshua?”
They usually point and sputter at that point.
Who is “they”? 200 million Protestants?
There are a lot of Protestants who read all of the books of the Bible, including the Old Testament, and frequently.
My experience is limited, having only been one for 66 years. I never heard anyone ask a question anything like that about anybody.
I met a lot of Protestants in the Army and they all came out with nonsense like that. The only people who made more inane comments on these matters were the atheists.
Growing up here in the Buckle of the Bible Belt, I’ve heard it all: why do you worship Mary and the saints? Why do you call your priests “Father”? Do you believe that Communion is the Body and Blood of Jesus? etc.
The second one is easy: “why do you call your father “Father”?
The third one is even easier: “because that’s what Jesus Himself called it at the Last Supper”.
Constantine was for many of Protestant friends a trump card. I didn’t know how to answer that one until I read the Books of Samuel and Kings (KJV) and learned about King David. The official story is bad enough; reading between the lines and you can see that he was a nasty piece of work.
After I’ve turned the tables on them, I then say something to the effect that “he is also a Saint and Prophet and he stands before the throne of the Lord. Go with it!”
Nice! I wish I would have thought to respond with the King David comparison when being interrogated by my father when I was converting. Would have saved a *lot* of time…lol.
Look, I realize that he is a saint in the Church and deservedly so, but let’s be honest, the guy was a piece of work.
Tim R. Mortiss: “There are a lot of Protestants who read all of the books of the Bible, including the Old Testament, and frequently.”
Very risky, they might end up like you, in the Orthodox Church. 🙂
It’s been known to happen!
As George says, he’s in the Buckle. Here on Puget Sound, there is no belt, much less a buckle.
The last I heard the ‘why do you worship Mary’ thing was about 55 years ago. When I, a Presby lad, married a Catholic girl in 1967, it was shrugs all around, religion-wise. Was married in her family church, of course, St. Patrick’s. It was 2 blocks from Immanuel Presbyterian, my church. We still live about 6-8 city blocks from both.
I had to get the imprimatur, of course, from a priest. I was at Cal Berkeley then. Appointment made with local Jesuit. Question: will you agree not to interfere with your wife’s practice of the Catholic faith? Yes. Passport stamped.
TimR, I hope some day we get to meet you and your lovely wife. Have a wee dram and a cigar as well. Seriously, there are Protestants, and then there are “Protestants”. Here in Oklahoma, there are quite a few “Protestants”. Or used to be. Now it’s all “jump for Jesus” type of calisthenics at the local mega-church.
I actually miss the old days.
Those were the early days of ‘ecumenism’; like a lot of stuff it seemed like a very good thing at the beginning.
The long-term pastor of our church and the long-time priest of St. Patrick’s would meet and confer and get along, and there’d be photos in the paper of local parsons, priests, and rabbis together around the table.
It more or less marked the end, at least in these parts, of anti-Catholic rhetoric; which was never particularly pernicious out here anyway. Anti-Semitic statements were always very deeply disfavored here by the time I was a kid. Indeed, my only knowledge of anti-Semitism during boyhood and youth was from reading.
It was a good time in many ways. When I met my future wife at age 16 in 1964, Sunday Mass was still packed and was in Latin; attendance was not voluntary, and every woman and girl wore a head covering. It was very impressive to a Presbyterian boy. The first time I went to Mass with her and her family, I almost tripped over the person in front of me when he genuflected in the aisle. And I got weak and shaky from kneeling; a new experience, too.
I met the man who brought me into the Church when I was the same age during the same timeframe. He was our star basketball player in our band new school which won every state championship.
The last I had heard, he was off to the University of Hawaii on a basketball scholarship. Didn’t hear from him for 40+ years until I saw his name on a school website and contacted him via email to see how he was doing. – He was not the guy I remembered. I later learned he never went to Hawaii. Instead, he went to a Christian College and then to ORU for a masters of divinity, I believe. He used to hang out with 4 guys and they all became Orthodox priests. My friend, Sam, spent a few years at St. Anthony’s and then several years traveling to Mt. Athos and other monasteries.
I didn’t even know what Orthodox meant. Like a lot of Protestants, I assumed the early Church fell off the map, He slowly, almost painfully, brought me into the Church over the course of several years. We lived in different states so it was hard. I remember talking on the phone with him for hours just about the Church. There were books to read and priests to talk to before I started on my own wobbly journey toward something that completely changed my life. Had he told me how much it would change me, I probably would have run the other way. I don’t think he particularly wanted to bring me into the Church but I was there and he said I wasn’t giving up. This was back in 2003. He and I have covered a lot of ground since then. He taught me well.
There is much to say on this and related subjects. My people were Presbyterians by identification, but my own parents were frank agnostics. However, they were raised in the church, met in it, and always were members. My mother was of the view that one could not be an educated member of Western civilization without a Christian upbringing, and so Sunday school was always required. My grandparents, on the other hand, were active. Not a bad way to be raised: I from the beginning only had very positive ideas about Christianity. My folks were utterly without religious prejudice of any kind.
While I was never the least tempted to become Catholic, I always saw the early Church reflected in Catholicism. (Orthodoxy existed only in history books.) When I first entered a Catholic household, when I met my girlfriend, I saw the evidence of devotion that did not exist in Protestantism: the lightning from the Immaculate Heart, the fire from the Sacred Heart.
The Catholics lived side by side with us. They actually had Religion; we thought we had it.
That whole world was swept away in a couple of decades. A terrible tragedy.
As I said, I never was tempted to become Roman Catholic, but my love of that old Catholicism was very much part of my journey to the Orthodox Church.
My mother was also an agnostic. She wouldn’t step foot in a church and my father was expected to support her in this regard, although I know he regretted it as he was brought up a strong Lutheran. I went to church with neighbors who saw to it that I was confirmed in the Episcopal Church, married in it, and later baptised my son in it. I LOVED going to church. My grandmother was also an Episcopalian and she would take me to church when I’d visit her in the summers.
He did indeed, Madame.
In my own mother’s case, her agnosticism was just an outlook; it had nothing to do with any animus toward the Christian religion at all. This was not at all an uncommon attitude at that time and place.
As I said above, she insisted on our religious education, and felt strongly that one could not be an educated person or a useful citizen without a deep grounding in Christianity. She would go to church on Easter, and sometimes Christmas Eve. My dad never went to church, but always remained a member and wrote a good check every year. I went to Sunday school, High School youth group; the whole upbringing in the church at the instance of my folks, who had had the same.
When I turned out to be more serious about it than they were they totally respected it.
I’m always interested over the years when I encounter so many fraught religious upbringings and experiences that folks have.
This laissez-faire attitude toward Christianity was the norm here in the PNWest back then. We learned our Bible, we learned our doctrine. If you didn’t care, you were no different than someone who didn’t care about Shakespeare or Homer. Ignorant.
It was an interesting time. There was a lot of emphasis on being appropriate. They all followed Dr. Spock, they all got their hair done once a week, they generally devoted time to some charity and they took their kids to church.
My mom, unfortunately, didn’t get the memo. She followed Dr. Spock and I got my tetanus shots on time but that’s pretty much it for normalcy in my household.
You got June Cleaver and I got Patricia Loud, but in both instances, we ended up here. God is good.
Constantine is no bad man. Most people are not aware of history that much. A more grey area ruler saint is Justinian. Being a fan of ancient history I take these early christian rulers in terms of their times not how people behaved in the modern world.
As an amateur historian, I always try to understand the context of any event and personage’s actions. To do anything less, is foolish and self-defeating.
Brian, I think the question can be (and often is) an honest one, because I believe it stems from the perception that a Christian *does* have a standard for moral character that gets applied to candidates for political office, when they don’t necessarily have the same standard.
But! Even if one is not willing to allow that, the fact is that because of this Joe Biden situation, that same question has been turned on them, as George rightly points out.
And the answer, as fleshed out in the Slate article I just posted, confirms my theory that anyone can vote for someone they feel doesn’t live up to their standards of moral character if they believe that the alternative would be an unmitigated disaster. (and she points out that it doesn’t have to be a “lesser of two evils” vote. Not only do things that last for decades, like SC nominations, come into play, but you’re always more likely to be able to influence Your Guy on any given policy than Their Guy.)
If nothing else, Trump supporters will be able to go to their liberal friends voting for Biden and say, “you know how you couldn’t understand how I voted for Trump? Now you do.”
‘Don’t Christians support Trump for basically the same reason, ie – that supporting whoever his opponent is would be “orders of magnitude worse?”’
…………………….
I could never vote for a member of the Democrat party as long as the party maintains its official stance that babies in the womb do not merit love or protection and are worthless, expendable souls.
I very much thank Bernie Sanders for making the Democrats formally announce, a few months ago, that anyone who does not believe in abortion on-demand, anytime, anywhere, is not welcome in the Democrat party, unless they keep their mouth shut about it.
I am no Trump fan either. Which makes me, probably like most Americans, essentially disenfranchised, not having a voice at the table.
I too, am somewhat respectful of Bernie. An honest communist is better than a dishonest democrat any day of the week. At least you know where you stand with a card-carrying socialist or communist.
An ‘honest communist’ is, I think, an oxymoron.
Where all are equal, some will always be more equal than others.
In this fallen world, such is the nature of the beast…
Brendan says: “An ‘honest communist’ is, I think, an oxymoron.”
I know honest “communists” and very dishonest crooked “anticommunists”. There are people who think that, in the developed economy, social ownership of means of production is better than private. One might disagree with that (I personally waver which side is right), but why to see such people as evil?
Did I say ‘evil’?
Did I say ‘knowingly dishonest’?
I was speaking generally of Man’s capacity for self-delusion:
‘In this fallen world…’
Brendan says: “I was speaking generally of Man’s capacity for self-delusion”
You used specific term “communist”, “generally” would apply to me and you also.
An ‘honest’ Communist (eg: Boxer the Horse) is Communist despite the evidence. Therefore he is dishonest to himself. A ‘dishonest’ Communist (eg: Napoleon the Pig) sees the reality, lies to others and profits thereby.
Francis Bacon writes on this trait in Man in: “Of Truth”(1625).
‘In this essay, as associate professor of philosophy Svetozar Minkov points out, Bacon addresses the question of “whether it is worse to lie to others or to oneself–to possess truth (and lie, when necessary, to others) or to think one possesses the truth but be mistaken and hence unintentionally convey falsehoods to both oneself and to others”… Bacon argues that people have a natural inclination to lie to others: “a natural though corrupt love, of the lie itself.”.’
https://www.thoughtco.com/of-truth-by-francis-bacon-1690073
We all suffer delusions of one sort or another,
and need the Light of Christ to see truly.
Brendan says: “An ‘honest’ Communist (eg: Boxer the Horse) is Communist despite the evidence.”
Orwell was a socialist, although a pessimistic one. Certainly he did not believe in capitalism, was closer in his views to Rosa Luxemburg and would abhor Rush Limbaugh.
My preferences are closer to socialism and I am little less pessimistic than Orwell, but not much. The truly just system will be after Second Coming.
Drip, drip, drip. Looks like Creepy Joe has lost Alyssa Milano. (Yeah, I know, she had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the #metoo movement at this point but, there you go):
https://dailycaller.com/2020/04/28/alyssa-milano-joe-biden-tara-reade-me-too-sexual-assault/
What this tells me is that the Deep State is in a deep state of confusion at this point. Take out Biden now? Or keep him in because he’s one of them and they feel that he’s got the best chance of taking down The Golden Don?
Maybe we should start a pool?
Did I miss something, but why does our society care so much about what Alyssa Milano thinks?
I’ve seen that her opinions seem to be valued by so many. Why? Where does she get her expertise from? Wasn’t she that teenage girl actress in “Who’s the Boss” back in the ’80s or ’90s? What has she done to earn the platform that she has?
I probably sound like an old curmudgeon, but I find it amazing that some actors/actresses suddenly become valued for their “cultural insight.” Based on what?
I personally don’t give a rat’s behind what she thinks. Unfortunately, in our celebrity-saturated culture, she matters. I hate it but there you are.
>why does our society care so much about what Alyssa Milano thinks?
She’s paid attention to because she’s the one who is credited with starting the #MeToo hashtag and subsequent movement on Twitter in 2017.
Something is surely afoot.HRC is all set, according to media, to endorse Biden today.Standing by her man once again?In case you missed it, in other smaller headlines the Dems signal their certainty at taking back the Senate, fundraising for those candidates is outpacing their Republican rivals. Things that make you go hmmmmmm. if they lose the Presidency, they still count on have both the Senate and the House. As they have already proven, probably even more powerful than the President. and they will tie his hands every which way.
Here’s more information on COVID mortality based on a racial gradient:
https://vdare.com/articles/wuflu-hitting-u-s-hispanics-harder-than-whites-because-of-genetic-vitamin-d-deficiencies?scroll_to_paragraph=5
The takeaway? Vitamin D plays an important role in resistance to susceptibility: those with lighter skin have better rates of absorption of vitamin D from the sun than do those with a higher melanin content in their skin.
I wonder where all those progs & libs are on this letter put out by 600 physicians? After all, they are the “party of science”:
https://disrn.com/news/mass-casualty-incident-600-doctors-sign-letter-to-trump-calling-for-end-to-coronavirus-lockdowns
Here is the letter:
Dear Mr. President:
Thousands of physicians in all specialties and from all States would like to express our gratitude for your leadership. We write to you today to express our alarm over the exponentially growing negative health consequences of the national shutdown.
In medical terms, the shutdown was a mass casualty incident.
During a mass casualty incident, victims are immediately triaged to black, red, yellow, or green. The first group, triage level black, includes those who require too many resources to save during a mass crisis. The red group has severe injuries that are survivable with treatment, the yellow group has serious injuries that are not immediately life threatening, and the green group has minor injuries.
The red group receives highest priority. The next priority is to ensure that the other two groups do not deteriorate a level. Decades of research have shown that by strictly following this algorithm, we save the maximum number of lives.
Millions of Americans are already at triage level red. These include 150,000 Americans per month who would have had a new cancer detected through routine screening that hasn’t happened, millions who have missed routine dental care to fix problems strongly linked to heart disease/death, and preventable cases of stroke, heart attack, and child abuse. Suicide hotline phone calls have increased 600%.
Tens of millions are at triage level yellow. Liquor sales have increased 300-600%, cigarettes sales have increased, rent has gone unpaid, family relationships have become frayed, and millions of well-child check-ups have been missed.
Hundreds of millions are at triage level green. These are people who currently are solvent, but at risk should economic conditions worsen. Poverty and financial uncertainty is closely linked to poor health.
A continued shutdown means hundreds of millions of Americans will downgrade a level. The following are real examples from our practices.
Patient E.S. is a mother with two children whose office job was reduced to part-time and whose husband was furloughed. The father is drinking more, the mother is depressed and not managing her diabetes well, and the children are barely doing any schoolwork.
Patient A.F. has chronic but previously stable health conditions. Her elective hip replacement was delayed, which caused her to become nearly sedentary, resulting in a pulmonary embolism in April.
Patient R.T. is an elderly nursing home patient, who had a small stroke in early March but was expected to make a nearly complete recovery. Since the shutdown, he has had no physical or speech therapy, and no visitors. He has lost weight, and is deteriorating rather than making progress.
Patient S.O. is a college freshman who cannot return to normal life, school, and friendships. He risks depression, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, trauma, and future financial uncertainty.
We are alarmed at what appears to be the lack of consideration for the future health of our patients. The downstream health effects of deteriorating a level are being massively under-estimated and under-reported. This is an order of magnitude error.
It is impossible to overstate the short, medium, and long-term harm
to people’s health with a continued shutdown. Losing a job is one of life’s most stressful events, and the effect on a person’s health is not lessened because it also has happened to 30 million other people. Keeping schools and universities closed is incalculably detrimental for children, teenagers, and young adults for decades to come.
The millions of casualties of a continued shutdown will be hiding in plain sight, but they will be called alcoholism, homelessness, suicide, heart attack, stroke, or kidney failure. In youths it will be called financial instability, unemployment, despair, drug addiction, unplanned pregnancies, poverty, and abuse.
Because the harm is diffuse, there are those who hold that it does not exist. We, the undersigned, know otherwise.